<aside> 🧑🏻🏫 This page is designed to guide students who are using MuckRock Requests in the classroom.
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<aside> <img src="/icons/book-closed_blue.svg" alt="/icons/book-closed_blue.svg" width="40px" /> MuckRock’s User Guide gives you everything to make the most out of MuckRock’s suite of tools. If this has helped you, consider donating to support our work!
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We’re using MuckRock’s Request service this semester. You will need to be part of our classroom organization on MuckRock in order to file public records requests this semester, so it is important to follow these directions carefully!
Everyone in the class will be receiving an invitation to our class “Organization” on MuckRock. You will need to create a MuckRock account and accept this invitation before you can complete your assignments.
When an organization admin invites you by email, you’ll receive an emailed invitation from MuckRock:
This screenshot shows an invitation to a MuckRock organization called “David McKie’s Research Methods” — your invitation will name a different MuckRock organization (unless you’re enrolled in Prof. McKie’s class).
When you click the link in that invitation, you will be taken to a dedicated page for the invitation.
When signed out, you’ll see prompts to sign up or sign in. Click the image to enlarge.
When signed in, you’ll see actions to accept or reject your invitation. Click the image to enlarge.
When you’re creating an account, you’ll also be prompted to act on any pending invitations through our signup process.
You can always see your open invitations on your MuckRock Accounts account page, in the Organizations section, under the “Open Invitations” subsection. From there, you can accept or reject the invitation.
If you get stuck, you can reach out to your instructor for help, or contact [email protected]. To ensure that the MuckRock team has enough information to help you, make sure you are thorough in explaining what is happening. Include the URL you were visiting, what you expected to see, and what you actually saw.
It often helps to see a screenshot as well.
Especially when you’re on deadline, the more information you give the MuckRock support team, the faster they can get you sorted out.
| Not helpful | Helpful | Why it Works |
|---|---|---|
| I tried the URL … | I tried to open the URL to create a new account, which I have as https://example.com/actual_url/ … | We want to be sure we’re looking at the same URL! |
| … and it didn’t work! | I was expecting to be able to accept an invitation to join my class account, but instead I’m seeing an error, “File not Found”. I’ve attached a screenshot. | Knowing what didn’t work goes a really long way. |
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